IT DIDN’T TAKE very long for Jessica G.,
a mom of two from California, to get
hooked on doTerra essential oils. At
bathtime, she found that adding a few
drops of lavender oil to an ultrasonic
diffuser—a device that disperses the
scent through the air—seemed to help
her two girls settle down for the
evening. And dabbing oils on her pulse
points before bed eased her own
anxiety. Following the wide-ranging
advice on the private Facebook group of
the woman who’d sold her the oils,
Jessica rolled a blend on her kids’ feet
to boost immunity, applied peppermint
oil to their foreheads to reduce fever,
a nd rubbed eucalyptus diluted in
coconut oil on their chests to clear
their stuffy noses.
So when her 5-year-old fell ill with
both croup and a double-ear infection,
and a member of the group suggested
rubbing basil oil on the sole of her
daughter’s foot, Jessica figured she’d try
it. But within 15 minutes, her daughter
had a bright-red burn on her skin and
was howling in pain. Jessica frantically
googled remedies—and couldn’t find a
single authoritative source. “That was
my lightbulb moment,” she recalls.
“I realized that all these oil protocols
had no scientific backing at all.”
Her daughter’s burn faded within days,
but Jessica’s guilt lasted much longer.
She learned that basil is one of many oils
that can irritate the skin. Now she’s part
of a growing group of moms raising
the alarm about the dangers of essentialoils—liquid extracts from plants and
f lowers that are potent enough to do real
harm when misused. “You really have
to know what you’re doing,” says Jessica.
But when there is so much shady info
about oils f loating around out there, that’s
not easy to do.The Nature of Oils
They may be trending, but essential oils
are older than dirt. Centuries before the
magi brought gifts of frankincense and
myrrh to you-know-who in the manger,
ancient Egyptians were using oils
for culinary, cosmetic, and medicinal
purposes. Different from the oils we
consume and cook with, essential oils
contain the highly concentrated
“quintessence” or core quality of the
aromatic plants or f lowers from which
they are derived. It’s the unique thing
that makes lemongrass lemongrass,
makes basil basil, and makes rose rose.
Even if you don’t own a diffuser, you’ve
been exposed to teensy doses; the scent
that wafts up as you peel an orange
comes from oils in the rind.
However, just because oils originate
in Mother Nature doesn’t mean that
they’re gentle. “There are plants that can
kill you,” says Kelly Johnson-Arbor, M.D.,
a medical toxicologist and co–medical
director of the National Capital Poison
Center. Wintergreen, for example,
contains an active ingredient related to
aspirin and can cause confusion and
seizures if ingested. Essential oils are
not regulated by the FDA in the same way
that common over-the-counter drugs are,
which means they’re not rigorously
tested and approved for safety or efficacy,
cautions Parents advisor Jennifer Shu,
M.D., a pediatrician in Atlanta. Although
oils are traditionally considered to be
cosmetics, not medical treatments, they
are volatile organic compounds composed
of aromatic chemicals. (Just in case
you were wondering, CBD oil, which is
extracted from the hemp plant, isn’t
considered to be an essential oil.
And its use is a whole other issue.)
Oil makers usually include a
disclaimer on their website, packaging,
and marketing materials that says
products are “not intended to diagnose,
treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” PROP STYLING BY ALMA MELENDEZ.PARENTS 104 SEPTEMBER 2019
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